Santander UK and xUnlocked launch free adult education programme

The bank has today launched three new courses on Santander Open Academy, in partnership with xUnlocked and Fearless Adventures, which aim to equip people above the age of 18 with green, digital and professional leadership skills – the skills needed to power the economy of the future. The course content is bite sized, video-led and accessible on-the-go, led by experts in their field.

Henry White, Co-Founder, xUnlocked commented: “The ultimate objective of this initiative is to prepare people for the future, in which environmental and digital technologies, along with strong leadership, will drive real progress. This aligns with our mission at xUnlocked, which is to help people, and organisations, build the skills and capabilities they need to succeed. Over the past four years, we've been proud to collaborate with Santander to enhance essential skills for its workforce and the wider UK public.

“The release of these new courses on Open Academy marks our most recent, and most ambitious, collaboration to date. Santander's research and the newly created Skills England under the new Government demonstrates the depth and immediacy of the skills crisis in the UK. We're looking forward to meeting this need in a way that is accessible and engaging, driving meaningful impact for society as a whole.”

In Tomorrow’s Skills, a report published today, Santander surveyed 3,000 adults to reveal that the UK workforce is spending 20% less time on training than they were a decade ago. The UK is facing a problem of stagnant productivity, with fewer workers taking the opportunity to upskill due to lack of time, cost, and flexibility to fit learning around their jobs and family.

Employees are also generally unaware of how emerging societal shifts could impact their job roles, with 69% of people expecting to stay in the same field for the rest of their career and 72% thinking that their job will still exist in 10 years’ time.

Mike Regnier, CEO, Santander UK said: “Education and skills are critical to powering productivity, financial resilience and economic growth. The UK cannot afford to fall behind in this critical area if we want our economy to grow and remain competitive.”

Santander wants government to use its new National Plan for Skills to roll out courses to upskill people for three significant societal shifts that are currently taking place in the UK:

• Changing attitudes to the world of work amongst different generations, posing new challenges for managers and business leaders. There is currently no real consensus on how often employees should be in the office and what makes a quality leader. When asked whether the increase in hybrid working post-Covid were positive for the UK economy, 65% of 25–34-yearolds agreed, vs 27% of 55–64-year-olds.
• The advent of a new technological wave driven by AI, which could have potentially farreaching consequences for the UK economy. As technology advances, 63% of workers recognise that they will need training around new technology as part of their jobs and almost half (45%) believe businesses should be embracing AI to increase productivity. Half (47%) of workers aged 18-34 worry their job could be replaced by AI in the future.
• The transition to Net Zero is shifting from ambition to delivery, with tangible steps now being implemented to reach 2050 emissions reduction targets. For the most part, people across all age groups are worried about the threat of climate change and 73% of people think it will have an impact on their future. However, only 35% think it will have an impact on their jobs.

According to the research, despite some concerns (particularly among older groups), there is significant willingness to adapt to future changes, with 58% of UK workers recognising that they will need training to adapt to their role in the future, and 86% seeing the importance of having access to professional skills training throughout working life.

The bank has today launched three new courses on Santander Open Academy, in partnership with xUnlocked and Fearless Adventures, which aim to equip people above the age of 18 with green, digital and professional leadership skills – the skills needed to power the economy of the future. The course content is bite sized, video-led and accessible on-the-go, led by experts in their field.

Mike Regnier added: “As a bank we play our part by investing significantly in education and skills development from school through university to funding some of the UK’s most exciting early-stage entrepreneurs. Our new adult education programme focuses on the key shifts in the economy to equip the workers of the future with the skills they need. Together, government, educators and industry can enable workers across the UK to upskill and take advantage of current global economic shifts to improve our productivity.”

Journalist and presenter of The Rest is Money podcast, Steph McGovern, added: “In my two decades as a business journalist, I have visited over a thousand workplaces across the UK. The organisations that do well are the ones who take a proactive approach to training and development. As Santander’s report shows, most people do want to access educational opportunities while in work, with more than 4 out of 5 people saying it’s important for adults to have access to professional skills training throughout their lives for all kinds of reasons. As the needs of the economy change, so too should our attitude to learning. We should think of education as lifelong. We all need to adapt, but workers can’t do that on their own.”

Ends

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Notes to Editors

1. Research conducted by Opinium polling a representative sample of 3,000 UK adults from 19 July to 5 August 2024.
2. At Santander Open Academy, we help people of all ages, customers and non-customers alike, become more employable and develop the professional skills most in demand by the labour market with the training needed for further growth. We offer courses, content, and scholarships from leading universities and institutions all over the world at no cost. Check out the opportunities on our global online platform.

Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. At 30 June 2024, the bank had around 19,600 employees and serves around 14 million active customers, including 7 million digital customers via a nationwide 444 branch network, telephone, mobile and online banking. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the FCA and the PRA in the UK. Santander UK plc customers’ eligible deposits are protected by the FSCS in the UK. Banco Santander (SAN SM, STD US, BNC.LN) is a leading commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain and one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalization. The group’s activities are consolidated into five global businesses: Retail & Commercial Banking, Digital Consumer Bank, Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB), Wealth Management & Insurance and Payments (PagoNxt and Cards). This operating model allows the bank to better leverage its unique combination of global scale and local leadership.

Banco Santander aims to be the best open financial services platform providing services to individuals, SMEs, corporates, financial institutions and governments. The bank’s purpose is to help people and businesses prosper in a simple, personal and fair way. Banco Santander is building a more responsible bank and has made a number of commitments to support this objective, including raising €220 billion in green financing between 2019 and 2030. In the first quarter of 2024, Banco Santander had €1.3 trillion in total funds, 166 million customers, 8,400 branches and 211,000 employees.